Science

The vacuum of space can get pretty chilly, but the International Space Station (ISS) is about to get even colder. NASA is sending up a new piece of equipment that will make one tiny part of the station about 10 billion times colder than space outside. When it’s up and …

Several species of skinks (a type of lizard) from the island of New Guinea have lime-green colored blood — which in turn results in bright green muscles, bones, tongue, and mucous membranes, according to a team of researchers from Louisiana State University and the American Museum of Natural History. Prasinohaema …

Increasing physical activity to recommended levels over as few as 6 years in middle age is associated with a decreased risk of heart failure, according to a study published recently in the journal Circulation. The same study found that as little as six years without physical activity in middle age …

NASA’s InSight Mars mission launched on May 5, but it wasn’t the only piece of equipment that began its journey to the red planet. The agency also sent two small cubesats along with InSight, and one of them just snapped its first photo. It’s a long way from getting any …

According to a new preclinical study by researchers from the University of Lausanne and Monash University, a diet rich in fiber blunts harmful immune responses in the lungs while boosting antiviral immunity by activating T cells; and these dual benefits are mediated by changes in the composition of gut bacteria, …

NASA’s MarCO-B spacecraft — one of two CubeSats accompanying the space agency’s Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport (InSight) lander — used a fisheye camera to snap its first photo on May 9, 2018. This image from NASA’s MarCO-B (known as ‘Wall-E’ to the MarCO team) CubeSat …

Stephen Hawking’s internment service is scheduled to take place at Westminster Abbey, Broad Sanctuary, London, on Friday July 15 at 12 PM. Members of the public who wish to attend may apply here; there are 1,000 open spots and attendees will be randomly selected. But those who apply may notice …

NASA has confirmed its upcoming Mars 2020 rover will carry a small robotic passenger. The agency has been working on a helicopter drone for use on Mars, and it now plans to include this vehicle with the 2020 rover. The still-unnamed Mars helicopter will be the first heavier-than-air craft to …

A team of Indiana University researchers has reported the first evidence that non-human animals (rats) can replay a stream of multiple episodic memories. The study was published in the journal Current Biology. Panoz-Brown et al show that rats remember a stream of multiple episodes and the order in which they …

A group of Montana State University microbiologists has discovered a new archaeal lineage living in the extreme geothermal environments in Yellowstone National Park. The discovery, reported in the journal Nature Microbiology, sheds new light on the evolution of the Archaea and the importance of iron in early life. Three major …